Category: Media Trends

“Welcome to the worlds most influential media forum”, said HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco at the beginning of the Monaco Media Forum 2010. Indeed the event is not only inspirational, but is also bringing together the a very influential group of people in the media business. During the almost three days, I met founders, entrepreneurs, investors but also executives of the big media companies. Here are some key trends reflected in my video interviews….

Publishing, especially the News Business, will never be the same anymore. Newspapers are struggling to understand the digital age and to re-structure their old-business into a thriving new-business. It seems that The Huffington Post found a way to be profitable and successful during these times of change. The Huffington Post is one of the most read Online Newspapers in USA and has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month. Eric Hippeau, CEO of The Huffington Post, said that “people have lost trust in general (government, toyota, tiger woods), now companies build trust via social media. 2/3 of #HuffPost is unique and self created content, 1/3 is curated & aggregated news. News wants to be free. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle”. He adds “…we will never charge for content…reason…there is a much bigger advertising market.”

Cloud Computing and the development of low cost netbooks aka cloudbooks is driving the global internet business. On the forefront of this development is Jolicloud, a startup developing a Cloud OS, founded and lead by Tariq Krim.

Mobile Gaming and Social Media together are creating new opportunities for App Developers, but also for Game Developers. Interview with Andrej Nabergoj, CEO of Outfit7, one of the leading Gaming Development Company.

Today is the official launch of amaysim, a MVNO offering the “no-frills” business model in the Australian mobile market. Amaysim is founded by the former founder team of the european mobile communication company simyo.

There are many successful entrepreneurs who keep building and growing companies around the world, but there are not many teams who stick together and “do it again”. Rolf, Christian, Thomas and Andreas are a powerful team and it seems they building a unique company culture with their experience and passion about mobile communication. Congratulations to all of you!

At the same time, we’re not going to skimp where it counts. We listen to our customers and have developed an outstanding Australian call centre, with a team that’s determined to put the focus back where it belongs: on the customer.

So who are we and why are we here? amaysim was introduced to Australia in November 2010 by a group of successful entrepreneurs with a proven international track record in Australia, Europe, the United States, South America and Asia. The founders are Australian telecommunications investor and advisor, Peter O’Connell (Chairman) and German e-commerce and telecommunication entrepreneurs Rolf Hansen (Chief Executive Officer), Christian Magel (Chief Marketing Officer), Thomas Enge (Chief Financial Officer) and Andreas Perreiter (Chief Operating Officer).

amaysim’s European Founders previously launched a similar business, simyo, a mobile company that grew quickly to become a market leader in its category in Germany, Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Now we’ve taken this experience and combined it with our Australian partner’s expert knowledge of the Australian mobile market, to build a new company that brings simiplicity and purity to Australian mobile customers. In building this company, we’re committed to delivering a ground-breaking mobile service that offers rates and a new standard of customer service that all Australians will enjoy.

My friend Rocco Georgi is co-host of a great event called “Mobile UnConference“. Unfortunately I cannot attend as I am preparing the next Cross Innovation Academy (XIA) which will be November 18 & 19, 2010. But should take the time to join the Mobile UnConference in Düsseldorf it will be exciting, fascinating and informative.

Here are more details:The Mobile Unconference is the ultimate chance to meet other developers, entrepreneurs, startups and technology companies to discuss the latest trends in mobile software. No frills, no strings attached, no marketing-speak, only regular folks who make the mobile world more
interesting every day. This is an UNconference and it’s all about its participants – anybody can grab the microphone and talk about something interesting there!

The event is organized by Mobile Enterprise Network Europe, MobileGamesBlog.com, Codeglue, Mangrove, PavingWays and Vodafone Germany and goes together with the Vodafone Developer Day and MobileMonday on the same day, November 15, 2010.

I started to produce videos for my YouTube Channel in December 2006 and now I realized that I have reached over one million views, exactly 1,039,903 views today. Amazing!

Since the start I kept producing videos whenever and wherever I had time – at conferences, during business travel or at exciting events. So far I have published 136 Videos and most of them are business related or feature executive interviews. Although the videos are not as funny as Fred’s or exciting as Lady Gaga’s, people do like and watch them.

Endemol’s new highlight is Zoom a new format that fuses TV and social media. This social experiment sees five contestants followed by cameras 24 hours a day. They stay in their own home and follow their usual routine, making public every moment of their every day life. The fate of participants will be determined by a ‘Social Community Index’ which counts their popularity on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Steve Jobs said at the “All things digital” (D8) conference last month that “Apple TV is still a hobby”. Jobs explained that the market is complicated due to the diversity of key players and a complex distribution system. Between the lines you could understand that Steve Jobs is thinking about a controllable and user-friendly system. An ecosystem which Apple already created in the Music (iPod) and in the Mobile (iPhone) market.

So that’s why I created a fast scribble of an “Apple Flatscreen TV” which I would mount onto my living room wall. My draft of the Apple Flatscreen TV would have a 50″ LED Screen with an improved small remote control, connectivity to my iPad, iPhone and other Macs in the house, a wireless connection to a Bang & Olufson speaker system and a big harddrive of approx. 5 TB.

The World Economic Forum is known for its “Open Forum” as part of the annual meeting in Davos. Today Steffi, Co-Chair of DLD and DLD Women, told me that at the inaugural DLD Women Conference they will integrate an Open Session, too.

Glam Media is a distributed media network comprised of both Glam-owned-and-operated properties and a publisher network of 450+ lifestyle websites and blogs. Glam Media aims to bring high-quality print content to the online medium, instead of the usual online trend of having print magazine-lite content. The Glam Media network also includes a slew of fashion websites, blogs and magazines.

Founder Samir Arora wants to gear the site’s online advertising towards the female market in the same way that traditional print has. Glam Media is working with publishers, content owners and media companies to reach readers in effective ways. Glam officially launched in September 2005 at Fashion Week, New York and quickly grew from there. After signing a partnership with AOL in October, Glam created the Glam Network consisting of style websites and blogs later that year. Since then, Glam has partnered with the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, signed a content syndication deal with the Hearst Corporation, and completed a multi-year advertising deal with Google. With more than 53 million unique monthly visitors, Glam Media, Inc. is clearly proving itself as a leader in the online industry for women’s lifestyle and fashion.

The Abu Dhabi Media Company is a media company with its headquarters in Abu Dhabi with over 2.500 employees. It is one of the fastest growing, multi-platform media organizations in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi Media Company owns and operates a range of television channels (Abu Dhabi Al Oula, Abu Dhabi Al Emarat, Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya, Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya 2, Abu Dhabi +1 and National Geographic Abu Dhabi) and a network of radio stations (Abu Dhabi FM, Emarat FM, Star FM, Holy Quran FM, and Abu Dhabi Classic FM), as well as number of publications (Al Ittihad newspaper, The National newspaper, Zahrat Al Khaleej magazine and Majid magazine), and a number of other media related businesses, including Imagenation Abu Dhabi that develops, finances and produces full length feature films and digital content for Arabic and international markets; LIVE which owns a fleet of outdoor HD broadcast vans; and United Printing Press, a state of the art printing press. ADMC’s Digital Group operates several digital assets including Getmo Arabia, goalarabia.com, and super.ae. In 2009 it formed two significant partnerships: VEVO, the online music video platform with Universal Music Group and Sony Music, and a first in the region MMOG joint-venture with Gazillion Entertainment.

The German MVNO simyo today announced that they will offer a special data plan including Micro SIM Cards for all Apple iPad Users. (Via iPadSim.de)

For the launch of the iPhone Apple has introduced exclusive deals with mobile operators in each country. In Germany the iPhone was launched in teamwork with T-Mobile. With the upcoming iPad Apple opened the competition and did not deal up exclusively with mobile operators. But there’s a catch, instead of the normal Mini SIM Cards they introduced a new standard of SIM Cards, the so called Micro SIM Cards. These SIM Cards are smaller than the regular ones. So you need a Micro SIM for your Apple iPad 3G.

simyo is the first mobile operator in Germany who has announced such a Micro SIM Card. With already very low rates of 24 Euro Cents per MB and 9,90 Euro for 1GB of data (for 30 days), simyo can definitely offer a competitive iPad Sim in the market.

Would you use a digital business card? The participants at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 did. During the two day conference the participants where getting used to connect their digital business cards, called “Poken”, instead of exchanging printed address cards. In the following interview Stéphane Doutriaux, founder of the innovative Social Business Card company, explains the technology and gives you some insights about the company.

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow the exchange of online social networking data between two keychain accessories. It is a perfect tool for Events and Conferences. Each person involved in the exchange must have his or her own poken. The primary information exchanged via the poken is a ‘social business card’, a digital replacement for a physical business card. By touching two devices together, a unique ID is exchanged that links to contact information on the Poken website. Contact information acquired by use of the poken can be uploaded to the poken website using a built-in USB connector.

In addition to the contact information found on a typical business card, links to users’ social networks can also be added. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, StudiVZ, LinkedIn and 40+ other social networks. Users of the Poken website can use a ‘social dashboard’ to manage, and interact with their contacts. Pokens are used for social networking, personal identification and as a device for loyalty programs. Bloggers and social media addicts have taken it up for networking event such as tweet-ups. Corporations such as BMW and IBM use pokens at their conferences, to enhance interaction with the conference attendees and to facilitate business networking.

Peter Scarlet is an inspiring, well connected person and the man behind the scene of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 he explained to me why the Festival in the United Arab Emirates is becoming more and more important for the film industry. The Award will take place at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi and will give away prices worth over one Million US Dollars.

The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) was established in 2007 and is presented annually in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH). MEIFF’s mission is to affirm the key place Abu Dhabi holds as an emerging cultural center and to foster the growth of its local film community. The Festival celebrates cinema in all its forms by creating a vibrant forum for storytellers from the Middle East and around the world.

Hassan Fattah is Chief Editor of “The National” in Abu Dhabi. I met Hassan Fattah at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 and I asked him how to build up a Newspaper from scratch during these turbulent times. The newspaper was started in 2008. Hassan Fattah said: “Print still counts in this part of the world and that’s why we have started a printed Newspaper first and now expand in digital media formats.” Print is also the biggest driver for the Newspaper – “Print is King” as Mr. Fattah said in this video interview:

About “The National” www.thenational.ae:
The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. The editor-in-chief since June 8, 2009 has been Hassan Fattah. Mubadala Development Company, an investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi government and royal family, owns the paper. The National has built its staff of 250 from newspapers around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph of Britain. Martin Newland was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 2003-2005 and he took with him many former Telegraph employees, most notably Colin Randall (former Telegraph executive news editor), Sue Ryan (former managing editor) and senior photographer Stephen Lock (who covered domestic and foreign news and the international fashion circuit during 20 years on the Daily Telegraph). The National is one of a few English-language newspapers produced in the United Arab Emirates, and is the only one produced in Abu Dhabi.

twofour54 is an Abu Dhabi government initiative and an integral part of its 2030 plan, which seeks to diversify the Emirate’s economy and establish the Emirate as the cultural capital of the Middle East. twofour54’s vision is to establish a sustainable Arabic media and entertainment content creation industry in Abu Dhabi; a regional centre of excellence which is internationally renowned. The aim is to stimulate creative and professional partnerships in the television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming and animation industries.

The company provides a collaborative and supportive ecosystem that will allow the establishment of a world-class media industry for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The focus is on developing Arabic media and entertainment content by Arabs and for the Arab audience. twofour54 delivers its advanced cohesive infrastructure through three key pillars: twofour54 tadreeb (the training academy), twofour54 ibtikar (innovation and support) and twofour54 intaj (state-of-the-art production facilities) supported by business enabler twofour54 tawasol (one-stop-shop).

twofour54 has already attracted several of the region and world’s largest and most influential content creation companies. By the start of 2010, twofour54 had more than 60 partners, all of whom have recognised the vast opportunity that the Arab world represents for growth and has committed significant investment and resources to business initiatives that will be led out of twofour54.

And by the way the name twofour54 is taken from Abu Dhabi’s geographical coordinates, which are latitude 24 north, longitude 54 east. This name was chosen to symbolise Abu Dhabi’s strategic position within the Middle East, which makes it the ideal location for the centre of excellence for content creation in the Arab region.

In this role, Tony provides strategic leadership for the business in order to deliver on its mission of creating an ecosystem that will allow the content creation industry to flourish in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Tony has more than 30 years experience in the UK and international creative content industry. He is an academy award winning television director, channel executive and innovative programming expert. At London Weekend Television, he won his first academy award with Network 7, a breakthrough TV format which put “serious” television back on the agenda for the youth audience. Tony joined the Abu Dhabi Media Authority in December 2007, taking a major role in the Abu Dhabi Government’s initiative to create a media and content creation industry in the Arab region.

Prior to joining twofour54, Tony created, developed and launched successful television products and entertainment channels for Paramount Pictures Inc across Europe in Spain, Italy, Poland and in the free TV market of Germany, which serves 34 million homes.

In September 2006, Tony joined the founders of Skype to launch Joost, the world’s first broadcast-quality television platform on the Internet. He led the UK content team from the Joost UK London offices. Previously, Tony was the CEO of MTV Networks International’s portfolio of entertainment channels including Paramount Comedy UK and Paramount Comedy Espana.

After the panel discussion I talked with Tom Stewart about the key topics and results.

The panel was about the combination of leapfrogging technologies and emerging markets. This powerful combination creates new markets which are much larger than they ever were and an rapid expansion of media markets. At the same time we have dramatic changes in media technologies moving from print media to digital media. This development does not only offer unthinkable opportunities, but also creates much more risks.

During the panel discussion James Murdoch, Chairman & CEO of Europe & Asia News Corporation, said that News Corp. is preparing for a “Revolution of Reading” due to eReaders, tablets and digital media. In our future vision video “Mobile Future 2020” we estimate 2016 as the year of digital newspapers, but maybe News Corp. is driving these new markets even faster then we thought.

H.E. Mohamed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Media Company and Mr. Edward Borgerding, CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company, together with Co-Chairs invite media executives to take part in the inaugural ABU DHABI MEDIA SUMMIT March 9-11, 2010 at Yas Hotel, Yas Marina Formula 1 Circuit, Abu Dhabi.
The summit for March 9-11 is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Media Company and is by invitation only.

The Summit is being held under the Patronage of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. The Summit will provide an unprecedented gathering of the people and companies driving the transition to a networked new world, with special emphasis on fast-growing markets in the Middle East, South East Asia, China and Africa. With a focus on opportunities and investment, the Summit is structured to encourage both private discourse and public conversation at the highest levels.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Publicis boss Maurice Levy, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are some of the luminaries who will be heading off to Abu Dhabi next month for a three-day international media summit.

The GSMA today reported that more than 49,000 visitors (I was one of them :-)) from 200 countries attended the 2010 GSMA Mobile World Congresss, the premier event for the mobile communications industry. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world’s largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations. 54 per cent of Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 2,800 CEOs.

Here are my highlights in pictures:

“It’s a hugely exciting time to be in the mobile communications industry and the extremely strong attendance at the 2010 Mobile World Congress underscores that,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Limited. “The innovation that is the hallmark of our industry was on display front and centre this week, from the insightful presentations in our conference programme to the demonstrations of new devices, technologies and services in the exhibition halls. Once again, Mobile World Congress stands out as the must-attend event for the global communications industry.”

During the event, leaders from companies including Alcatel-Lucent, BBC, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Ericsson, Huawei, KDDI, RIM, Samsung, Spotify, Telstra and Vodafone, among others, discussed and debated the trends and issues which are shaping the mobile industry today and into the future. In a Mobile World Congress first, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt delivered a Mobile World Live keynote to a standing-room only crowd in Barcelona; the session has also been viewed by more than 35,000 people to date via the Mobile World Live portal. To access the replay of the Mobile World Live keynote, as well as interviews with the industry’s leading executives, please visit www.mobileworldlive.com.

More than 20,000 people visited the inaugural App Planet, a focused event designed to bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. Google, Motorola, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and WIPJam each held application developer conferences (ADC) within App Planet. Overall, more than 6,000 developers attended Mobile World Congress this year.

City8 offers a much better quality, zoom function and interaction. The StreetView has been created using high resolution photography. City8 has already digitalized most of the big cities in China and is expanding its service rapidly.

The technology and the team surprised right away when we visited them during the Trend Tour for our client. It seems to be even better than the Canadian Street Maps.